Compiler Validation

Phaedrus Systems can supply compiler validation for C compilers. This is Validation not Certification because at the current time there is no Certification for C compiler as there is/was for Ada or Pascal compilers.

The thoroughness of compiler testing varies widely among compiler vendors. Some have state-of-the-art testing laboratories while others make do with much more limited facilities. Some use only one validation test suite while others use all available suites plus randomly-generated stress tests. Some test on-target, others only on-host. Also, owing to the large number of options in modern cross-compilers, particularly for C and C++, it is very unlikely that the options under which a vendor performs testing and validation will coincide with those used for any particular embedded application.

Users need to take particular care:

· at higher SIL levels, i.e. highly critical SIL3, and SIL4,
· when having to rely extensively on language features that depend on the implementation,
· when performing numerically sensitive floating-point computations,
· when compiling code generated by software tools, e.g. SIMULINK, SCADE.

In any of these cases, it may be recommended to perform specific validation tests on-target under particular compiler options.